According to NOAA Fisheries new draft document proposes different methods of reducing the number of Chinook salmon accidentally caught by Bering Sea pollock fishermen. Doug Mecum, Acting Administrator for the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries, informed that the comment period ends on February 3, 2009. He added that people will take time to study the Bering Sea Chinook Salmon Bycatch Management Draft Environmental Impact Statement and give us their thoughts.
It is told that managers are seeking ways to limit the accidental salmon ‘bycatch’ in order to conserve Chinook salmon, maintain a healthy ecosystem, and provide maximum benefit to fishermen and communities that depend on Chinook salmon and pollock. It is said that the Bering sea pollock fishery catches up to 95 percent of the Chinook salmon taken as bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries.
To meet the growing menace of Chinook salmon bycatch the authority has analyzed this in the draft EIS generally involve limits or ‘caps’ on the number of Chinook salmon that may be caught in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. It is told that the draft EIS reveals projected environmental, social, and economic impacts of four alternatives to minimize Chinook salmon bycatch while still achieving optimum yield in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. The draft is said to analyzes the benefits of the projected numbers of Chinook salmon saved and the costs of the projected forgone pollock catch under each alternative.
